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How to swap Litecoin (LTC) to Zcash (ZEC)

2 min readSwapToZec

Litecoin to Zcash is one of the fastest cross-chain swaps you can do. Small blocks, low fees, and a receive on a chain that supports shielded transactions. This walk-through covers the specific things to know for this pair.

Why LTC → ZEC

Two useful properties:

  • LTC blocks confirm every ~2.5 minutes, four times faster than Bitcoin. So the time from "I sent the deposit" to "my ZEC is on the way" is typically 15–20 minutes for the default 6-confirmation target.
  • LTC fees are fractions of a cent, so the network overhead on the source side is negligible. The bulk of the deducted amount is the swap fee and the ZEC network fee, both shown on the quote.

What you need

  • Some LTC in a wallet you control.
  • A Zcash receive address (u1… preferred, t1… accepted).

If you don't have a ZEC wallet yet, the first ZEC guide walks you through picking one.

The swap

  1. Go to /swap/ltc-to-zec.
  2. Enter the LTC amount. The receive amount, rate, fees, and minimum payout show up as you type.
  3. Paste your Zcash address. Double-check the last 4 characters — this is the one part we cannot fix for you.
  4. Confirm.
  5. You'll get a Litecoin deposit address (ltc1… bech32) and the exact amount. Send from any LTC wallet.

What happens after you send

The swap status page shows six states:

  • Waiting for deposit
  • Deposit detected (first confirmation)
  • Confirming (each additional confirmation)
  • Processing
  • Sending ZEC
  • Completed

Total time on defaults: 15–25 minutes.

Common issues

  • You sent to the LTC deposit address from a BTC wallet by mistake. These deposits are lost. There's nothing that can be done. Always match the source asset to the deposit address's chain.
  • Your LTC wallet only lets you send legacy L… addresses. That's fine — the deposit address accepts both bech32 (ltc1…) and legacy formats.
  • The quote expired before you sent. The site will refresh the quote automatically on the enter step. If you'd already advanced to review, back up one step and continue.

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